Higbee struck the testimony of Merck researcher Dr. Briggs Morrison from the record because she said he was not an expert on the studies he had told the jury about Thursday, nor did Merck give the court sufficient notice about what he would discuss.

"I felt sick last night, and I realized how I got sucked into this. I feel that the court was misled repeatedly with this testimony," Higbee told attorneys Friday morning.

Oops. Rule: Never do something that will royally piss off the judge when you are in a multi-million dollar lawsuit.

Judge Strikes Merck Witness' Testimony

FEMA, in an e-mail, also said Sunday that Davis had asked that the agency pay $7,000 per acre per month for the property -- more than four times its value.

Since then, the e-mail said, Davis dropped his lease rate "to a reasonable monthly amount," and federal officials had nearly finalized a deal to put housing on the site, which can accommodate as many as 1,000 units.

"I do not own a construction company. I did not attempt to lease land to FEMA," Davis said Monday. "The only land I own is the lot my flooded home sits on. This is absurd.

I see FEMA is doing a much better job of disaster management than they had been. Now they're inventing them!

CNN.com - Parish chief demands FEMA apology - Oct 3, 2005

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse churches and other religious organizations that have provided shelter, food and supplies to the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The payments with taxpayer money would mark the first time that the government has made such payments to faith-based groups at a time following natural disasters, the newspaper reported, citing FEMA officials.

WHAT??? Isn't that what "charity" is all about? What the hell is this?

FEMA to reimburse faith groups for helping victims

"I would like to say to Cindy Sheehan and her supporters don't be a group of unthinking lemmings. It's not pretty," said Mitzy Kenny of Ridgeley, W.Va., whose husband died in Iraq last year. The anti-war demonstrations "can affect the war in a really negative way. It gives the enemy hope."

I would say the fact that they're winning gives them hope, but that would be a totally different point.

Sheehan Arrested During Anti-War Protest - Yahoo! News

Pantuso, whose members include some of the nation's largest motor coach companies, including Greyhound and Coach USA, eventually learned that the job of extracting tens of thousands of residents from flooded New Orleans wasn't being handled by FEMA at all.

Instead the agency had farmed the work out to a trucking logistics firm, Landstar Express America, which in turn hired a limousine company, which in turn engaged a travel management company.

Excuse me? FEMA farmed out their response? Guys, delegation is good and all that, but isn't this delegating your job?

Offer of buses fell between the cracks

His three-year tenure at FDA was marked by increasing criticism and a particularly rocky final 12 months. The painkiller
Vioxx was pulled off the market for safety problems, FDA was embarrassed last fall when its British counterparts shut down a supplier of U.S. flu vaccine for tainted shots, and over the summer recalls of malfunctioning heart devices mounted.

Finally last month, morale at the agency plummeted when Crawford indefinitely postponed nonprescription sales of emergency contraception over the objections of staff scientists who had declared the pill safe. FDA's women's health chief resigned in protest.

Good riddance.

FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford Resigns

And now, the other shoe.

Hurricane Rita at this time yesterday was a tropical storm. As of an hour ago, Rita was a Cat2, with strengthening expected. Where is she going? Galveston/Houston. Hopefully, the storm will blow itself out before it does any damage. That and a tank full of gas will get you the hell out of Houston to someplace safe(r) like Dallas.

The only thing I ca say for sure is, New Orleans had best hope it keeps going that way. If it turns right like Katrina did, it could dump everything on New Orleans, and worse, into the Mississippi watershed. The Lake Ponchetrain levees failing was bad. Dump an entire hurricane into the Mississipps and you risk losing the levees on that side. If that happens, it's all over. The level of the river is much higher than the lake, and it has a constant inflow of water. Lots of it.

Stay Tuned...

Update: Another 24 hours and it is now a Cat 5 as of an hour ago.

Hurricane RITA

President Bush on Friday ruled out raising taxes to pay the massive costs of Gulf Coast reconstruction, saying other government spending must be cut to pay for a recovery effort expected to swell the national debt by $200 billion or more.

Sorry W, you want to cut what? Good luck, everything that isn't pork is already gone. Oh, and you want to keep that tax cut too? In the words of Homer Simpson, "You're living in a fantasy world!"

Bush Rules Out Tax Hike to Fund Recovery

President Bush called for the special day of worship, held nearly three weeks after the storm devastated the Gulf Coast.

Hey moron, how about a call for building levees and houses and places for these people to live? Or better yet, dumping the "Department of Homeland Security" because it's obvious it has made the homeland less secure.

Special day of worship? Take your religio-fascist bullshit and shove it right up your WASP ass.

Many Churches Heed Bush's Call for Prayer

Striving to bridge the impasse, China proposed a revised draft agreement at the six-nation arms talks, affirming Pyongyang's right to civilian nuclear technology. But Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice hinted Washington's patience is running out.

Hey Condi? What are you going to do when Pyongyang tells to to go screw? We don't have a military option, and we already don't trade with them. We can't get world opinion turned against them anymore than it already is, so what's the "or else?"

N. Korea Slams U.S. for Refusing Demand